Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Hi Frank,

Great scene, no doubt..good capture!

I had a go at it with Lightroom, and this was the best I could do. Adjusted exposure, contrast,
colors (reduced the orange), selectively darkened a couple over-bright areas, added some
sharpening and luminance:

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by Dizzy

I had a go at it with Lightroom, and this was the best I could do. Adjusted exposure, contrast, colors (reduced the orange), selectively darkened a couple over-bright areas, added some
sharpening and luminance:

Hi Mike! thank you for taking the time to work on this image. First, as I am learning, some background thoughts, then, if you don't mind, a couple of questions. I'm not trying to be picky but rather just trying to understand the reasoning so that I can learn what to look for when making PP adjustments.

Here is the SOOC for comparison:

When I started with this image, I felt that the subjects were lost in the contrasty and jumbled background so after cloning out some brush and a fishing pole that was sticking out of his head, I increased the contrast and brightness of the three subjects and decreased the contrast and brightness of the background. Next I toned down some of the bright spots on the back of her jacket and pants leg, his shoe and pants leg, and parts of his shirt, hands and face. I was concerned about having them be too bright as I often go too far in luminance. Then, Geoff felt that the white balance was too cool and should be warmed, I picked up to just a hint on warming the temperature more toward the orange/red. I still have difficulty determining if the color temperature is too warm or too cool, LOL!

In your view, it needed more exposure, contrast and luminance. How do you determine how much? Is it just a personal taste or is there something I can use as a guide in this area?

I am guessing that the increased exposure and contrast would have pushed the bright areas too far and that's why you toned them down but I really can't see (other than the areas I had previously darkened) any difference.

It looks like the increases were made to the background as well which, too me, takes attention away from the subjects. Was this done this way because it is difficult to selectively change part of an image in Lightroom or did you have another reason?

By the way, you can play with tweeking any images I post any time you want. It is fascinating to see my images through the eyes of another photographer and I usually learn something new in the process.

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by Colin Southern

Since I'm doing 1000 this afternoon anyway, here's one more!

Hi Colin, thank you for looking at this and providing the edit. I see that you cloned out the fishing gear and cropped off the left side of the image. It looked like you picked up on the contrast as well. Would you have time to describe the changes made and more importantly, why you chose those changes? I would definately appreciate the insight into your thoughts!

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

I agree, Steve. Outside of a studio setting, the uncontrollable is a constant issue to deal with, so learning how to mitigate these kinds of issues is one of the photography skills I'm trying to learn this weekend!

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by FrankMi

Hi Colin, thank you for looking at this and providing the edit. I see that you cloned out the fishing gear and cropped off the left side of the image. It looked like you picked up on the contrast as well. Would you have time to describe the changes made and more importantly, why you chose those changes? I would definately appreciate the insight into your thoughts!

My pleasure Frank, but it's 2:12am here, so if it's OK, I'll outline what I did when I've had a few hours sleep!

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by FrankMi

In your view, it needed more exposure, contrast and luminance. How do you determine how much? Is it just a personal taste or is there something I can use as a guide in this area?
I am guessing that the increased exposure and contrast would have pushed the bright areas too far and that's why you toned them down but I really can't see (other than the areas I had previously darkened) any difference.
It looks like the increases were made to the background as well which, too me, takes attention away from the subjects. Was this done this way because it is difficult to selectively change part of an image in Lightroom or did you have another reason?
By the way, you can play with tweeking any images I post any time you want. It is fascinating to see my images through the eyes of another photographer and I usually learn something new in the process.
Thank you for your patience with my questions!

Hi Frank,

No worries about the questions, and I'll do my best to give you decent answers..

I actually reduced the exposure by .22, and then added in some contrast, sharpening and used
the luminance to reduce the noise I had created. If you look at the girls back in your first post,
it was quite bright, so I darkened the back of her sweatshirt along with the area by dad's left
ankle.

As far as a "method", I generally use a standard workflow with an image: Exposure and white balance
(could not adjust white balance as it was set in the .jpg), then color temp, add any fill (or remove)
as needed, then general contrast and brightness, followed by clarity, and at times a little bit of
vibrance and saturation. Then, adjust sharpening (radius and detail too, if needed) and add slight
luminance just to the point the noise is reduced. Adjust any colors that need toning down or enriched,
and that's about it.

I took some time earlier today and re-worked what I had and applied a 1:1 crop to it, lightened
up the puppy just a little to make him stand out a little better, and then applied a small bit of
vignette:

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by Dizzy

Hi Frank,

No worries about the questions, and I'll do my best to give you decent answers..

I actually reduced the exposure by .22, and then added in some contrast, sharpening and used
the luminance to reduce the noise I had created. If you look at the girls back in your first post,
it was quite bright, so I darkened the back of her sweatshirt along with the area by dad's left
ankle.

As far as a "method", I generally use a standard workflow with an image: Exposure and white balance
(could not adjust white balance as it was set in the .jpg), then color temp, add any fill (or remove)
as needed, then general contrast and brightness, followed by clarity, and at times a little bit of
vibrance and saturation. Then, adjust sharpening (radius and detail too, if needed) and add slight
luminance just to the point the noise is reduced. Adjust any colors that need toning down or enriched,
and that's about it.

I took some time earlier today and re-worked what I had and applied a 1:1 crop to it, lightened
up the puppy just a little to make him stand out a little better, and then applied a small bit of
vignette:

Thanks for the feedback Mike. I guess I shouldn't have beet too concerned about the vibrance going a bit highter, it has more 'pop' that way. I had left the tackle bag in place to help tell the story but it looks like that wasn't needed which afforded a tighter crop.

Re: Father and Daughter Goin' Fishin'

Originally Posted by FrankMi

Thanks, Colin. I'm guessing you used a large soft brush to reduce brightness?... or did you go with the burn tool?

Nah - that's the hard way

If you're using Photoshop, just pop into Filter -> Lens Correction -> Custom Tab -> Vignette. Or if you're using ACR, then just use the Vignette tool or (better still) the post-crop vignette adjustment on the Fx tab (it has better controls).